NV elects to realign grades for next year

The Nodaway Valley school board unanimously followed guidance from Elementary Principal James Larson and Middle School Principal Sara Honnold Thursday, Feb. 13 and approved a grade-realignment plan that takes effect next school year.

The plan calls for fifth graders to attend the middle school next school year, making it a fifth through eighth grade building. The reasons for the change are that the district would like to add a Level 3 special education classroom and a transitional kindergarten classroom, both at the elementary school. Space in the elementary school is not adequate and the middle school has room for the fifth grade.

The district has secured a Level 3 teacher already. Level 3 students are those who need the most intensive support of those in the special education student population. Cumberland-Anita-Massena (CAM) has a Level 3 program but NV does not. Larson believes students at NV could benefit from an in-house program like this.

Transitional kindergarten allows for another year of maturity for any student, but especially prospective kindergartners whose birthday is in May through early September.

“What does that look like? They would be at school Monday through Friday. The TK program would follow the kindergarten curriculum but at a slower pace and focusing on the essentials. There would be a big emphasis on working on social skills in a play-based setting. They would still go to specials and eat lunch with the kindergarten,” Larson said. “It would like a kindergarten classroom but not as rigorous.”

There is not a transitional kindergarten program in the community. More than half of the kindergartners with summer birthdays didn’t meet spring benchmark on assessments last year, Larson said. He has been working with private and public school preschools in the community to learn the need for this.

NV officials say the elementary is at capacity. To relieve those problems, they believe the middle school can be reconfigured to house another grade without negatively-impacting student experiences or learning outcomes.

Leaders have taken into consideration Orient-Macksburg whole grade sharing during the 2025-26 school year and dissolving after that. They believe NV will experience a small, short influx of students because of that and other factors. All these enrollment projections were shown to the board.

Elementary classes for next year range from 44 third graders as the smallest class to 59 first graders as the largest. Middle school grades range from 43 fifth graders to 59 sixth graders.

The middle school layout will still allow fifth graders their own area with older grades having their own area. These areas are refered to as pods.

Orient-Macksburg students are included in all these figures, based on a survey given to parents about their intentions.

The middle school projects there being a total of 36 special education students in the four grades.

Staffing needs for all these changes, which will be posted internally, then externally if needed, are one physical education teacher to be split between the middle school and high school, a fifth grade teacher, one special education teacher and six paraeducators.

Honnold said adding the PE teacher creates an opportunity to provide more speed and weight classes at the high school so there isn’t overcrowding and more traditional PE classes can still be offered.

Officials said fifth graders will not miss out on any educational benefits as a result of this change because the overall plan is geared toward creating opportunities for them.

Honnold said another reason this move is being proposed now is if some changes are already in the works with bringing Orient-Macksburg students in, it seems natural for this change to occur with that.